Bears Battle Past Falcons, Win Second Straight
Published on October 18, 2014 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Casey Wellman scored two goals, Kris Newbury continued his torrid point pace and Philipp Grubauer made 20 saves to help the Hershey Bears spoil the home-opening festivities of the Springfield Falcons in a 4-1 victory on Saturday night at MassMutual Center.
The Bears would quiet the rowdy crowd by tallying the game's first goal. A tic-tac-toe passing play, led by Newbury on the Bears' first power play of the game, led to a 1-0 Hershey lead at 3:34. Tim Kennedy collected Newbury's dot-to-dot pass, looked in front and found Wellman for a tap-in past Falcons goaltender Anton Forsberg.
Hershey, who dominated defensively in the middle frame, got some insurance again from the tandem of Newbury and Wellman. Entering the Falcons zone with a three-on-two rush, Newbury passed from the left wing all the way across the ice and found Wellman's tape, and the forward promptly picked the stick side of Forsberg with a blast from the right faceoff dot at 9:23.
Springfield finally capitalized on a power play chance early in the third period, and gained some momentum in the process. Domenic Monardo would grab a loose bouncing puck and rip the rebound into the net behind Grubauer at 3:36, putting the Falcons on the board.
It took ten more minutes of a hard-fought battle for the Bears to grab some much-needed insurance. Caleb Herbert, playing in his first game of the season, failed on a toe-drag move around a Falcons defenseman. But the forward stayed with the play, grabbed the puck and backhanded it across the crease. Philippe Cornet was waiting, grabbed the pass and placed the puck just under the crossbar for a 3-1 lead at 13:51.
Dustin Gazley later put the game away with an empty-net tally with 20 seconds left in the contest.
Grubauer improves to 1-1-0 on the season, while Forsberg suffered his second loss and drops to 1-2-0. The Falcons netminder stopped 26 of 29 Hershey shots.
The Bears continue their stretch of five consecutive road games with a matchup against the Hartford Wolf Pack tomorrow, October 19. Face-off from Hartford's XL Center is set for 3:00 PM. Fans may listen to the game beginning with pre-game at 2:20 PM on the Bears Radio Network of affiliates WQIC-FM 100.1, WTKT-AM 1460, WRBT-FM 94.9 HD-2 and on the iHeart Radio application, station WTKT-AM 1460.
Hershey will host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the club's home opener on Saturday, October 25. The Bears will wear special opening-night jerseys that will be auctioned off after the game, and the first 8,000 fans will receive a magnetic schedule courtesy of PNC Bank. Tickets for this game and all home contests may be purchased at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.
NOTES: The Bears scratches were G Brandon Anderson, LW Dane Byers, RW Chris Conner and D Patrick Wey...D Steve Oleksy served as a third alternate captain in Byers' absence...D Cameron Schilling played in the 150th game of his Hershey career...Springfield scratched LW Corey Cowick, LW Mathieu Gagnon, LW Mike Hoeffel, D Hubert Labrie, D Brett Ponich and C Riley Wetmore...Three stars: 3-Monardo, 2-Grubauer, 1-Wellman.
Information on group tickets and season tickets for the 2014-2015 Hershey Bears regular season is available by calling (717) 508-BEAR. Many different flexible plans are offered and start as low as $170.
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